Padres need starting pitching

In the immediacy, let’s hope the Padres do not allow Barry Bonds to break the Major League Baseball home run record in San Diego this weekend.

But there’s suddenly an even bigger issue with Padres’ pitching.

Jake Peavy is finally back on track, but:

Chris Young is injured.
Greg Maddux can’t go past five or six innings, even when he’s on.
David Wells is getting paid $170,000 (on top of his $3 million base salary) each start to get pummeled.
Justin Germano isn’t fooling anyone any more with his hanging breaking ball.

Enter Clay Hensley. The injury-plagued pitcher has had a terrible 2007 season thus far, but he seems to have regained his form in a pair of three-inning relief stints since being recalled from the minors.

Let’s see how he does in Saturday’s start against the San Francisco Giants.

Luckily for the Padres, the Dodgers and Arizona are not deep in starting pitching either.

So, it may all come down to a battle of attrition in the NL West.

Hensley will soon replace Germano

This just in: Clay Hensley will replace Justin Germano in the Padres starting rotation around the All-Star break.

Impossible, you say?

After all, Germano is 4-0 with a 1.74 ERA. Hensley is 1-3 with a 7.62 ERA for the Padres … and now pitching in the minors.

What will change?

Starting tonight with the Seattle Mariners, some teams will see Germano for the second time this season. And they’re going to love jumping on that hanging breaking ball they just missed the first time.

Hensley, meanwhile, has much better movement on his ball than Germano.

So don’t be surprised when the Padres alter their pitching rotation about mid-season.

Wells needs to produce

With Clay Hensley on the disabled list, the Padres need to add a new starting pitcher.
Or is that two?

David Wells has not exactly been looking like Sandy Koufax lately … or David Wells, for that matter.

In his last two starts combined, Wells has surrendered nine runs on 17 hits and three home runs in 10 innings. He gave up just two runs in seven innings three starts ago, but was touched before that start for five runs on eight hits in 2 1/3 innings by the Dodgers.

Either this is just a blip on the radar, or a trend is starting to develop. If it’s a bump in the road, fine. If it’s a pattern, the Padres must reconsider their investment in a 43-year-old pitcher making $3 million in base salary this year.

Wells, making his sixth start of the season tonight at Florida, is to be paid bonuses for his 11th through 27th starts this year. If all is met, he’ll make an extra $3 million.

This is the same Wells that the Padres let pitch on short rest the final day of 2004 to make a $250,000 bonus. It’s also the same Wells who walked away to the Boston Red Sox in 2005.

David Wells: Worth the investment? Let the next few starts unfold.